1.75 Lakh Crore Stands between Telangana and Rayala-Andhra

The ‘roadblock’ in the creation of the separate state has nothing to do with politics, but a lot to do with economics. Rs1.75 lakh crore is the current debt burden of the State government, say sources. As home minister SK Shinde is looking for a place to hide from the party and crowd after his deadline for creation of Telangana state was missed by the Centre, most leaders are talking among themselves about what caused the sudden hitch. Postnoon has stumbled upon the ‘roadblock’. It has nothing to do with politics but economics. Highly placed sources in the government said the financial position of the State and the huge disparity of revenue generation among the three regions are delaying the decision. The AP government is saddled with huge debts from market borrowings which are to be apportioned. And then, the question of Hyderabad, the biggest income generator for the State comes in. The State has been borrowing left, right, and centre without a thought about tomorrow. Former chief ministers are mainly responsible for this but the public hardly know this.

– sujaiblog.blogspot.com

“The Andhra and Rayalaseema leaders have succeeded in convincing the party high command that they would not be able to bear the gigantic burden by themselves and the question was would a fledgling state bear it? The Rayala-Andhra leaders also informed the Centre that the State was running on the income generated by Hyderabad district, an integral part of Telangana,” the source said. According to a rough estimate the current debt burden of the state government stands at `1.75 lakh crore. The State government, while presenting its annual budget last year pegged its budget estimates for public debt for the ongoing fiscal (2012-13) at `1,60,191,12 crores calculated the debt burden of the state government for the current fiscal. The other factor behind delaying the decision is the huge disparity among the three regions. While the Telangana region including State capital Hyderabad topped the list of top revenue generating regions of the state during the last fiscal despite the severe agitations for a separate state the other two regions, Andhra and Rayalaseema came second and third. TRS president during his recent speech in Samara Deeksha also acknowledged this fact and said that it is because of the Telangana region the State government could be able to implement its welfare programmes. According to KCR, the Telangana region alone earned about `39,000 crore during the last fiscal, which is three times higher than the other two regions.